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Foster's Whist/^anual c 



BRENTANO'S 










FOSTER'S 

AMERICAN LEADS 

AND HOW TO LEARN THEM 



BY THE AUTHOR OF 



FOSTER'S WHIST MANUAL 



BRENTANO'S 

NEW YORK CHICAGO WASHINGTON 
1894 

(All rights reserved) 



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GrV\?. 

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Copyright, 18Q4, 

BY 

BRENTANO'S 






AMERICAN LEADS. 



The term, " American Leads," is somewhat 
vague, the name being often applied to leads 
that were in common use long before the expres- 
sion came into vogue. Generally speaking, Am- 
erican Leads are all those which have for their 
chief object the indication of the number of 
cards in the suit, and they are governed by the 
following four rules, three of which I quote from 
an article by Mr. JT. B. Trist. in Harper's, for 
March, 1891; the fourth being my own statement 
of a rule not yet formulated by the apostles of 
these leads: — 

1st. When you open a strong suit with a low 
card, lead the 4th-best. 

2nd. When you open a strong suit with a high 
card, and next lead a low card, lead the original 
4th-best. 

3rd. When you remain with two high indiffer- 
ent cards, lead the higher, if you opened a suit 
of four ; the lower, if you opened a suit of more 
than four. 

4th. Never lead a King if you have more than 
four cards of the suit. 

The first rule seems to have had its origin away 
back in the days of "Cam," who led the- lowest 



4 FOSTER 8 AMERICAN LEADS 

but one of five, long before Cavendish had written 
his first edition. General Drayson claims the 
invention of the second ; and the third was sug- 
gested by Cavendish, in 1875, in connection with 
the lead from A Q J and others. The term 
"American Leads" did not come into use for 
any system of leading until ten years later, when 
in 1885 Cavendish published his " Whist Devel- 
opments," using the name as a sub- title. This 
work contained nothing new in the way of leads, 
its chief novelty being what is called the un- 
blocking game, or the plain-suit echo. The 
fourth rule was not even hinted at. 

It must therefore be obvious that none of the 
leads covered by the first three "maxims," as 
they are called, have any right to the title 
"American " having been all suggested by Eng- 
lishmen, and all being in more or less common 
use long before the term was applied to them. 
They have now so long been an integral part of 
the common system of leading that they are 
given in all text-books on whist as a matter of 
course. 

It is when we come to the fourth rule that we 
reach the peculiar and distinguishing character- 
istic of the system of leading which we recognize 
as " American." I have repeatedly called atten- 
tion to the fact that the name is a misnomer, and 
that these should be called the " anti-King leads." 



AND HOW TO LEAEN THEM. 5 

Their enthusiastic advocates are in the habit of 
claiming that "all the best players have adopted 
American Leads," which is quite true with regard 
to the first three rules, but quite false with regard 
to the fourth. The leads covered by the first 
three having nothing peculiar about them, and 
being those which are given in full in " Foster's 
Whist Manual," it is not my purpose to repeat 
them here, but to confine our attention to the 
leads which are specifically recognized as " mod- 
ern," or "American," although they appear to 
have had their origin in England also, their con- 
ception being clearly traceable to four paragraphs 
of doubtful logic on page 83 of the first edition 
of " Whist Developments." 

It is remarkable that a writer of the calibre 
and caution of Cavendish should have allowed 
himself to become responsible for the far-reaching 
consequences of a rather hasty and very incom- 
plete analysis of the results of unblocking on a 
King led ; and it is to be regretted that instead 
of correcting his error, and recommending a har- 
monious and universal system of unblocking on 
all high cards, he should have attempted to force 
two wrongs to make a right, by suggesting to 
change the whole system of leading from high 
cards, in order to avoid the necessity of acknowl- 
edging his error. 
Having the ear of the public, and being the 



6 FOSTERS AMERICAN LEADS 

recognized authority on the subject throughout 
the world, his statement of the case was taken 
without question. Compilers of text-books on 
whist and contributors to the press copied it 
without comment, and in the course of time 
Cavendish embodied the proposed changes in the 
leads in his "Laws and Principles of Whist," 
twentieth edition. While this had no apparent 
eif ect on the players in England, where the system 
recommended had been pretty thoroughly tried, 
and its defects recognized, it became quite a fad 
in America, chiefly, I believe, if not wholly, on 
account of the patriotism inspired by the name 
given to it, "American" leads. 

The result has been that many American whist- 
players have almost entirely lost sight of the 
original object of the game, which was to win as 
many tricks as possible, and have substituted 
another object, to give as much information as 
possible, regardless of loss or gain, so that by 
many persons Whist, properly so called, is no 
longer played. 

Information, and not tricks, being the object 
of the game, it follows that it is no disadvantage 
for the information to be published to the whole 
table, and that whether it is of any practical use 
to the partner, or of less use to him than to his 
adversaries, is not the question. According to 
one of the best-known apostles of this system of 



AND HOW TO LEARN THEM. 7 

play, "the best players are those who afford the 
most information by their play." 

It may be contended that the ultimate object 
of the giving of this information is to secure an 
advantage in tricks. I admit that that is the 
theory ; but a theory that does not agree with 
the ascertained facts must be false, and in every 
instance where the experiment has been tried, it 
has been proved that " information ' ' is a trick- 
losing game. It was tried for three years by the 
various clubs in Philadelphia, and in every in- 
stance the old leads defeated the new. See Phil- 
adelphia Inquirer, 1889 to 1891. Four of the 
best players in America tried a set match to 
decide on the merits of the anti-King leads, and 
their advocates lost it by thirteen tricks. See 
" Whist," April, 1893, p. 166. When it was 
announced that the two great high priests of the 
anti-King leads, Cavendish and N. B. Trist, were 
to play together as partners at the Third Amer- 
ican Whist Congress in Chicago, it was generally 
supposed that they would annihilate any two 
players that could be opposed to them. So far 
from that being the case, they met with uninter- 
rupted defeat in every match in which they took 
part, although the players opposed to them had 
no claim to being in the first class. All these 
matches were at duplicate whist. 

It is in response to the requests of numerous 



8 Foster's American leads 

pupils, and to the demands of my publishers 
that I have undertaken the task of arranging 
a simple method of learning this new form of 
game, which I call ''Information," on the same 
general principles as those which have proved so 
successful in "Foster's Whist Manual." 



GFNFBAL PRINCIPLES OF INFOR- 
MATION. 



I wish to call attention to a very common error 
with regard to the anti-King leads, which is con- 
tained in the statement made by their advocates 
that any person learning what they call the 
"old" system of leads will have to "unlearn" 
it in order to acquire the new. But no one can 
play the "new" leads with less than five cards 
of the suit in his hand ; so, in order to play the 
much more common four-card suits, every one 
must learn the " old" system, which is still con- 
sidered by the best judges as the better of the 
two. Before any person can acquire, or even 
understand, the "new" leads, they must be 
familiar with the system given in "Foster's 
Whist Manual." 

The fundamental principle to be kept in view 
by the "Information" player is that the weak- 



AND HOW TO LEARN THEM. 9 

ness or strength of his hand, the ever-varying 
abilities of his partners and opponents, the state 
of the score, and the turn-up card, must have no 
influence whatever in determining his opening 
or original lead, or his play in the adverse suits. 
These must be settled by purely mechanical rules, 
of sufficient exactness to guide the most brain- 
less automaton. 

These rules are as follows : 

1st. The strongest suit must invariably be 
selected for the opening lead ; numerical strength 
being usually the point considered. 

2nd. Time is no object. So that the desired 
information has been conveyed before the thir- 
teenth trick is played to, the play of the hand 
is to be commended. It follows that if a player 
could give an amount of information on the first 
trick, which we shall call equal to 4, and on the 
tenth trick could add to it, making its total value 
equal to 5, he would not be so good a player as 
one who gave no information until the tenth 
trick, and then gave some of the total value of 6, 
That is to say, if on the first trick of the hand 
you can show your partner that you have a suit 
of at least four cards, with sufficient trump 
strength and cards of re-entry to justify you in 
expecting to make something of it, with reason- 
able help from him, and on the tenth trick you 
have added nothing to this information except 



10 Foster's American leads 

that your suit is safe, thanks to his having been 
encouraged to play a forward game, you are not 
so good a player as one who can show his partner 
nothing on the first trick except that the card 
led was one of the thirteen dealt to him, but by 
the tenth trick has shown that he had six cards of 
the suit originally led, and that he had no trumps 
to support it, no cards of re-entry to bring it in, 
and that his partner' s frantic sacrifices of his 
own hand to protect this six- card suit were a sad 
waste of energy. 

3rd. The exact number of cards in the suit led 
must be indicated as far as possible, and this 
must be considered as more important than any 
indication of the general strength or weakness 
of the hand. In order to do this it may be nec- 
essary entirely to disregard the reasons which 
formerly obtained for first leading certain cards 
from certain combinations, and to arrange the 
original leads solely with a view to the second 
lead, which may be necessary in order to make 
the first intelligible. 

i 4th. The exact number of cards held in the 
adversaries' suits must be indicated with scrup- 
ulous exactness, in order that your partner may 
be enabled to count what you have or have not 
in that and other suits. For instance : If your 
left-hand adversary leads the Club ace, and you, 
haying Queen Jack only, throw the Queen to in- 



AND HOW TO LEARN THEM^ 11 

duce him to change the suit or to lead trumps, 
either of which will exactly suit your hand, and 
will probably result in a gain in tricks if the 
stratagem succeeds, you are not so good a player 
as one who entirely disregards the trick-making 
possibilities of his hand, but carefully indicates 
to his partner that he has King Queen, or Queen 
alone, or no more Clubs, or in any case, that ten 
at least of his remaining cards are not Clubs. 

5th. Frequent defeat, even at duplicate whist, 
is no criterion of good play. If you have whist- 
players for opponents, who give no exact indica- 
tion of the number of cards in their suits, and 
who mercilessly humbug you by playing false 
cards in yours, so as to render the information 
you seek to give and to receive from your partner 
utterly worthless and misleading, that does not 
detract from your merit as a player. " The best 
players are those that afford the most informa- 
tion" ; not those that receive it, iior those that 
use it. 

It will be noticed that in the "new" leads no 
provision is made for giving any information as 
to whether or not there is any probability of the 
leader being able to establish, defend, or bring 
in the suit he originally leads, which would be 
most useful in directing the partner to play an 
offensive or a defensive game. That would be 
an indication of the trick-taking possibilities of 



12 



FOSTER S AMERICAN LEADS 



the hand, which is Whist, not Information. The 
student who is interested in the possibilities of 
such a system of communication, and the many 
charming varieties of the game to which it leads, 
is referred to "Foster's Whist Strategy," where 
it is fully explained. 



THE NEW LEADS. 



The student of Information, who is supposed 
to be already familiar with the usual system of 
leading at Whist, has only the four following 
combinations to study afresh : 

1*1 
No. 1. 



No. 2. 



No. 3. 



No. 4. 




The leads from these four combinations are 
governed by the fourth rule of American Leads : 



AND HOW TO LEARN THEM. 13 

" Never lead a King if you have more than four 
cards of the suit." 

This rule being merely negative, I have found 
it necessary to give my pupils some further 
guide, which I have formulated thus : 

When you have a combination from which you 
would lead the King but for the number of cards 
in the suit, begin with the lowest of the sequence 
of high cards. 

The student must bear in mind that in the new 
leads, the ten and all cards below it are regarded 
as small. 

Take an ordinary pack of cards and lay these 
four combinations out on the table. Then apply 
these two rules with a view of ascertaining what 
you would lead from any one of them, either in 
trumps or plain suits. 

In the first place, from none of them would 
you lead the King, so that card may be disre- 
garded as a possibility. 

From the first combination, the Jack being 
the lowest of the sequence of high cards should 
be first led. 

From the second combination, the Queen being 
the lowest of the sequence of high cards should 
be first led. 

From the third combination, as the King must 
not be led, the Ace is the only remaining card of 
the high sequence, and should be first led. 



14 FOSTER'S AMERICAN LEADS 

From the fourth combination, the King being 
unavailable, the Queen should be first 'led. 

For practice, take a pack of cards from which 
all below the nine have been discarded, and give 
yourself several hands of thirteen at a time. 
Sort them into suits, and determine what you 
would lead if any of these four combinations 
come into your hand. 



JPZAYIWG ON PABTJVEM'S LEADS. 



Let us now imagine that you are the partner 
of a player that adopts this system of leading, 
and let us see how it would affect your play as 
third hand. 



ACE LED. 



Sort your pack of cards into suits, separating 
them. Then take any one of these suits and 
place on the table opposite you, as if led by your 
partner, the Ace. Place some small indifferent 
card, to represent the play of the Second Hand, 
on your right. From the remaining eleven cards 
take into your hand, one at a time, each of the 
combinations here given, and ask yourself: 



AND HOW TO LEARN THEM. 15 

"From what combination of cards did my part- 
ner lead that Ace % " 



No. l. K Q J 3 

No. 2. K Q 7 3 

No. 3. K J 7 3 

No. 4. K 7 6 3 



No. 5. Q J 4 2 

No. 6. Q 6 4 2 

No. 7. J 6 4 2 

No. 8. 8 6 4 2 



It must be constantly kept in mind that your 
partner has not always a suit of five cards to lead 
from, and that when you hold either the 4th or 
8th combination allowance must be made for the 
fact that he may be leading from a suit of three 
or four only ; such as A Q J alone, or A Q J and 
one small card. But it may be taken for granted 
that if you hold either Q or J he is leading from 
a suit of at least five cards, whether with or 
without the King you cannot tell unless you hold 
it yourself ; so that you have no indication as to 
whether the command of the suit is with or 
against him. 

It is your duty as his partner to keep the low- 
est card you have of the suit when you have four 
exactly, no matter what they are; but with more 
or less than four you should play your lowest 
card on your partner's Ace led. In trumps, the 
usual system of echoing must be followed, which 
will be found fully explained in "F. W. M.," 
p. 114. 



16 FOSTER'S AMERICAN LEADS 



KINO- LED. 



Sort out another suit, and lay the King and a 
small card on the table as before. From the 
eleven remaining cards of the suit take any com- 
bination, and ask yourself : "From what did my 
partner lead that King?" The first answer to 
this must always be : " From a suit of not more 
thai_ four cards." As this must be one of the 
regular whist leads, he must have either Ace or 
Queen; see "F. W. M.," p. 29. 

In Information, you must always play your 
lowest card of the suit to a King led by your 
partner, no matter what or how many you hold, 
so as to give him as little information as pos- 
sible. W his ^-players echo, or unblock, on a 
King led when they have four or more of the 
suit, as they think it very important that a 
player leading from such strong combinations as 
are usually indicated by a King should have 
every possible indication of how the small cards 
of the suit are distributed. 



AND HOW TO LEAKN THEM. It 



QUEEN LED. 



Now lay out the Queen and a small card, and 
give yourself any of the following combinations, 
asking yourself what your partner probably led 
from : — 



No. 1. A K 4 2 
No. 2. A 6 4 2 
No. 3. K 6 4 2 



No. 4. A J 5 3 
No. 5. J 7 5 3 
No. 6. 7 5 4 3 



If you hold the first combination, you know 
that he has led from Q J and one small card, or 
from Q J 10 with or without others. If the lat- 
ter, he may have only three in the suit ; or he 
may have eight. If you hold the second com- 
bination, he may have led from a short suit or a 
long one ; from a suit headed by the King or by 
the Queen. You know little or nothing, except 
that he has led a Queen. If you hold the third 
combination, you know he has led from Q J, with 
or without the 10, perhaps from a short suit, 
perhaps from a long one. If you hold the fourth 
or fifth combinations, you know he has led from 
K Q, with at least five cards in the suit, unless 
he is one of those who believe in leading 
"strengthening Queens." [When Information 
players have no suit of five cards they do funny 



18 Foster's American leads 

things.] If you hold the sixth combination, you 
know nothing except that he has led a Queen. 
The Ace is so frequently held up by the adver- 
saries on a Queen led, if they are Whist-jAayers, 
that it is not safe to draw any inferences from 
this lead, not even if it wins the trick. When 
a IF^^-player leads a Queen, it is a certainty 
that he has no higher card of the suit in his hand, 
and it is perfectly useless for the adversaries to 
try to deceive his partner by holding up the Ace. 

It is your duty as the partner of a player lead- 
ing a Queen, to remain perfectly passive and to 
await developments. If you have none of the 
suit you must not trump the Queen, no matter 
how many or how few trumps you have, unless 
the Second Hand covers it. If you have exactly 
four cards of the suit, no court card among them, 
keep the lowest of your four. If you have a 
court card, play the lowest, whatever the number. 

Whist-players, when they have none of the suit, 
trump a Queen led by their partners, unless 
they are certain that they can make at least three 
tricks by allowing the adversaries a chance to 
make two with the Ace and King. 



AND HOW TO LEARN THEM. 19 



JACK LED. 



Now lay out the Jack and a small card, and 
take any of the following combinations into your 
hand : 



No. 1. AKQ2 

No. 2, A K 4 2 

No. 3. K 6 4 2 

No. 4. K Q 7 3 



No. 5. K 7 5 3 

No. 6. Q 7 5 3 

No. 7. A 7 5 3 

No. 8. 8 7 5 3 



Holding any of the first six of these, and in 
every case in which the second player covers the 
Jack with any card but the Ace, it must be 
obvious that the lead is forced. If you hold 
either of the last two, the lead may be from 
KQ J with at least five in suit. If you hold the 
eighth, it may be from A K Q J, with at least 
five in suit. The location of the Ace is always 
doubtful with Information players, that card 
being so frequently held up as a card of re-entry, 
or to deceive the partner of the leader as to the 
command of the suit. When a Whist-jjlsLyer 
leads a Jack it is a certainty that he has not the 
Ace, so it is of no use to attempt to deceive his 
partner by holding it up. 

It must be obvious to the attentive student 
that on the first round of a suit the "new" leads 
give about as little information as possible, and 



20 Foster's American leads 

that it would be folly for the third hand to risk 
an attacking game, as by leading or calling for 
trumps, unless his own hand justified it, apart 
from any indications from his partner. The 
usual policy of Information players is to wait 
for the second round of the suit to explain the 
first. This second round may follow at once, 
presently, or not until the hand is practically 
over. In any case it is too late to begin a call in 
a suit which will have to go round three times to 
complete it. The system always reminds me of 
the English practice of remitting money by cut- 
ting bank-notes in half, waiting for the receipt 
of the first half to be acknowledged before send- 
ing the other ; the two halves meanwhile being 
absolutely valueless to either party in the trans- 
action. 
Let us turn our attention to the second half. 



THE SECOND HOUND OF THE SUIT. 



Let us suppose that you won the first round of 
the suit you selected for your original lead, and 
that you have to go on. Lay out these four 
combinations again : — 



AND HOW TO LEAEN THEM. 



21 



No. 1. 



No. 2. 



No. 3. 



No. 4. 




* 



o o 



o o 



The general rule for continuing a suit, suppos- 
ing it to be desirable to continue it, is to go on 
with the best card of it if you hold it. Having 
several, equally the best, the Information player 
follows this rule : — 

Make the long jump for the short suit, and the 
short jump for the long suit. The jumps are 
counted from the card first led, which, as we have 
already seen, is always the lowest of the high 
cards. 

Let us examine these four combinations in 
order, beginning with the first. 

The shortest suit with which it is possible to 
play the "new" leads is one of live cards. The 
longest jump you can make in the first combina- 
tion is from the Jack, which is first led, to the 



22 FOSTER'S AMERICAN LEADS 

Ace. With the second combination, the longest 
jump you can make is from the Queen to the Ace. 
With the third combination, the only winning 
card left in your hand after leading the Ace is 
the King. With the fourth combination, if the 
Queen forces the Ace out of your way, the only 
winning card to go on with is the King. If the 
Queen wins the first trick you are supposed to 
take it for granted that the Ace is in your part- 
ner's hand, and to follow the second rule of 
American Leads: "When you open a strong suit 
with a high card, and next lead a low card, lead 
your original fourth-best." See "Cavendish," 
nineteenth edition, p. 282. 

Many Information players do not follow this 
rule exactly, but ignore the King, and count the 
4th-best from the Queen originally led, which, 
in the combination before us on the table, would 
be the 3. Mr. Trist gives as a reason for this 
that the higher card is supposed to be known (a 
grave error), and that the lead of the 4th-best 
from the Queen would indicate that there are 
two other small cards, but higher than the one 
now led, still in the leader's hand. It is worthy 
of note that Cavendish, after advocating it for 
years, does not now think the second rule of 
American Leads sound, and refuses to embody it 
in his Laws and Principles. 

Let us add a card to each of our combinations, 



AND HOW TO LEARN THEM. 



23 



and we shall find that the only ones in which any 
change in the second lead is possible are the 1st 
and 2nd. 



No. 1. 
No. 2. 


* 






%%$%] 




* * 

* * 

* * 
















o -o 



* * 



* * 



O 



o 



~ In the first combination, your suit is one card 
longer, and you accordingly make your jump one 
card shorter, from the Jack to the King, instead 
of to the Ace. 

In the second combination, your suit being one 
card longer the jump must be one card shorter, 
from the Queen to the King, instead of to the 
Ace. 

The possibilities of the first combination are 
not yet exhausted. We may add another 
card : — 









*M 4 






* * 




* * 




* 


* 


stilt) 










* + 








* 















*_+ 




4. * 




_*_ 



The suit being now two cards longer than the 
normal, which is five, the jump must be two 
cards shorter, from the Jack to the Queen. 

When the student has mastered these leads 
he will be in full possession of all the theory and 
practice of "modern" whist. 



24 FOSTER'S AMERICAN LEADS 

PLAY OF THE THIRD HAND. 



In the following exercises we shall suppose 
that certain cards are led by your partner, and 
certain others held by you. Our object is to 
gain facility in drawing inferences from the 
leads we are studying, and to practice affording 
information in return. I wish again to call at- 
tention to the fact that you are not now consid- 
ering what use you are to make of this informa- 
tion, but simply and only the mental satisfaction 
to be derived from receiving and imparting it. 



INFERENCES. 



The cards given in full-faced type should be 
taken into the hand ; those indicated as played 
by others being placed in their proper positions 
on the table. Some persons find it an advantage 
to place a duplicate whist tray on the table, ar- 
ranging the cards round it as if that game were 
in actual progress. 

The student should remember that the trump 
signal being the exception, not the rule, all gen- 
eral inferences should be drawn as if no such ar- 
tifice existed. Make your own inferences before 
reading mine. 



AND HOW TO LEAEN THEM. 25 

K 7 4 2. A led; 6 2nd; 4 yours; 54th. Your 
partner may be leading from a short suit, A Q J. 
He should be able to place the 2 in your hand, 
and know that you are echoing with four exactly. 
Second round: 8 led; J 2nd; your K; 10 4th. 
You and your partner should now be equal] y 
certain that you hold the remainder of the suit 
between you. 

J 2. A led; 5 2nd; your 2; 4 4th. Your part- 
ner must have at least live of the suit ; you hold- 
ing J. He may or may not have the King. By 
your 2 he knows you are not echoing. Second 
round : 7 led ; K 2nd ; your J ; 6 4th. Your 
partner had exactly live of the suit. The player 
on your left, or your partner, has the Q; and one 
or other of the adversaries has the 8, 9, or 10. 
Your partner does not know that you have no 
more ; neither can he locate the Q, unless he has 
it ; but he knows that the 8, 9, or 10 is with the 
adversaries, not with you. 

J9 4 2. K led ; 5 2nd ; your 2 ; 3 4th. Your 
partner has only four cards of the suit, one of 
which is the A. You know that the adversaries 
have three more between them, but your partner 
knows nothing whatever. Second round : Q led ; 
6 2nd ; your 4 ; 10 4th. You know that the 
player on your left has no more, your partner 
has the A, and either 7 or 8 is on your right, 
alone, if your partner had four originally. Your 



26 FOSTEE'S AMERICAN LEAPS 

partner still knows nothing. Had you echoed, 
he could now place every card in the suit. 

9 5 4 3. Q led ; 2 2nd ; your 4 ; 7 4th. It is 
probable that your partner has A K, but A is 
so often held up that it is not a reliable inference. 
The wM^-player's lead of a Q gives absolute 
information that both A and K are against. 
Your partner cannot tell you are echoing. Second 
round: A led ; 2nd trumps; your '5; 10 4th. 
Your partner now knows you have the 9 and 3, 
and that the J is on your left. You can locate 
the J, for your partner would have begun with 
it if he had it. Observe that the player on your 
left knows the location of every card just as well 
as you do. Your partner's leads showing no 
more than five, you must have four, and he can 
force his partner again with absolute safety that 
you cannot overtrump. 

J 7 5. Q led ; A 2nd ; your 5 ; 6 4th. Your 
partner has at least five in suit, with the K ; but 
neither you nor he have the slightest idea of the 
distribution of the other cards. On getting the 
lead again, he continues with the K ; 3 2nd ; 
your 7 ; 10 4th. Still your partner knows noth- 
ing ; not even that you are not echoing. You do 
not know whether he had five or six in suit 
originally. 

A 3 2. Q led; 7 2d; your 2; 5 4th. You 
cannot tell whether your partner is leading from 



AND HOW TO LEAEN THEM. 27 

a short suit, Q high, or a long suit, K high. 
He should assume that you have the Ace. 
He knows you are not echoing, but does not 
know that you have not four cards of the suit 
with an honor among them. Second round : 4 
led ; J 2nd ; your A ; 6 4th. Your partner has 
continued with the 4th-best, ignoring the high 
card, which he supposes you to know he holds. 
So he held exactly five cards of the suit. You 
know the 8, 9, or 10 is against him on your left. 
He only knows that the second hand has no 
more. 

6 S. Q led ; 3 2nd ; your 5 ; 2 4th. Unless 
your partner has the 4 he cannot tell you are not 
echoing. Now that the 4th hand has played, it 
looks as if the leader had A K Q ; but it would 
have been very risky for you to begin a call on 
that assumption if you had had trumps to sup- 
port such a suit, as you cannot suppress a call 
with two cards only. Second round : A led; 2nd 
trumps; your 6; 4 4th. Your partner knows 
nothing about your hand, and you know nothing 
about the rank of his two small cards. The 
player on your left, your adversary } knows every 
card in your partner's hand, and knows you have 
no more. 

I J 10 9 2. Q led; 6 2nd; your 2; 8 4th. The 
player on your left has no more if your partner 
has A K. On your right can be only the 7, if 



28 Foster's American leads 

any. Your partner is totally ignorant of any- 
thing about any hand at the table but his own. 
Second round: K led; 7 2nd; your 9; 4th trumps. 
The player on your right, your adversary, knows 
every card in both your hands. Your partner 
knows nothing of the J and 10. 

10 6 4 2. J led; 7 2nd; your 4; 5 4th. The 
J winning should indicate AKQ; but the infor- 
mation is too late to be of any use, for you had 
to play before you knew it would win. Second 
round: A led; 8 2nd; your 6; 4th trumps. Every 
one at the table knows you are echoing ; for if 
your partner had exactly five in the suit he can- 
not have both the 2 and 3. Your left-hand ad- 
versary knows his partner has still one more of 
the suit, as he can count you and your partner 
for exactly nine between you. 

It must be obvious from the preceding exer- 
cises that the case is correctly stated by Caven- 
dish, on page 31 of the fourth edition of ' ' Whist 
Developments" when he says: "The informa- 
tion required by B [i. e. the third hand], is al- 
ways afforded on the second round of the suit." 
After eight cards have been played, and the 
leader has announced the exact number remain- 
ing in his hand, a good deal of information has 
been " afforded" to every one at the table, and 
usually by those who can least " afford" it. 



AND HOW TO LEARN THEM. 29 

THE SECOND HAND. 



The only object the second hand shonld have in 
studying the new leads is to take advantage of 
the information they afford. 

Q 3 2. A led ; your 2 ; 6 3rd ; 9 4th. You know 
the leader has at least five in suit. The location 
of the K is known only to its holder. The 
leader cannot tell whether or not his partner is 
echoing ; if he is, your partner has no more. 
Second round : K led ; your 3 ; J 3rd ; 10 4th. 
You are the only player that can place the suit. 
The leader had no means of indicating to his 
partner that he had a six-card suit ; but only 
that the command of it is now against him, with 
which adversary neither he nor his partner 
knows. 

K 10 7 6. A led ; your 6 ; 4 3rd ; 5 4th. 
The leader is the only player who can gain any 
information from this trick. He should be able 
to place the 2 and 3. Second round : Q led. 
The leader announcing four cards only, cannot 
have both 2 and 3 ; so his partner must be echo- 
ing with four, and your partner has no more. So 
you play your 7, allowing your partner to trump 
and to leave you with tenace, K 10, over the 
leader's J and small. 

A J. K led ; your A ; 4 3rd ; 10 4th. You can 
locate every card in the suit. The leader shows 



30 Foster's American leads 

that he had only four, Q among them. His small 
cards are the 2 and 3 ; your partner has no more ; 
and there are still five cards of the suit on your 
left. It is important to observe that should this 
player on your left obtain the lead, and show a 
suit of his own, you can count his entire hand, 
thanks to his partner' s having exposed it. For 
instance : Suppose you lead another suit, which 
he wins, and he then shows a five-card suit. He 
can have but one trump, if any ! This should be 
very useful to you should trumps be led. 

6 4. Q led ; your 4 ; 3 3rd ; 2 4th. They 
command the entire suit, and third hand is not 
echoing. Second round ; K led ; your 6 ; 7 3rd ; 
5 4th. Leader has A 10 9 8. The J being doubt- 
ful, you should pass with four trumps if the suit 
is led again ; for if you partner has not the J 
he will trump ; and if he has it, you will be over- 
trumped by the third hand. 

A J 9 2. Q led. With so many in the suit 
you should play the Ace unless you have strong 
reasons for retaining it; 8 3rd; 3 4th. The 
leader had at least five cards of the suit. His 
partner has the 10 or no more, and your partner 
has either 10 and 4, or the 4 alone. You are the 
only player at the table that knows anything 
about the suit. The leader, does not know that 
his partner is not echoing. The third hand does 
not know whether the lead is from a long suit 



AND HOW TO LEAKN THEM: 31 

headed by K Q, or from a short one, headed by 
Q J. After the second round you will command 
The suit with your J 9. 

It is to be observed that if the leader begins 
with a suit in which he shows five cards, as by 
leading an A, you being able to place J or Q, 
and for any reason changes the suit, and shows 
four of another, you know nine cards of his 
hand. 

Advocates of the new leads sometimes realize 
how much more important it is to show command 
on the first lead, and they accordingly disregard 
the fourth " maxim." In one of the earliest 
hands played by Cavendish during his visit to 
this country, he successively led two Kings, from 
two suits of five cards each, headed by the A, to 
the consternation of the many spectators, who 
wanted to see some American leads. In illustra- 
tive hand No. 20, in his twentieth edition, a 
player with A K J 4 3 2 leads the King ! The 
hand would be a farce, as an example of good 
whist, if he led the Ace. I have seen a player with 
seven clubs, K Q at the top, Q and a small dia- 
mond, 10 9 8 of spades, and one small trump, 
lead the K, to show the Q for one sure trick. 
His two diamonds fell ; his spades could be 
counted, and his partner, counting him for 
four clubs only, placed four trumps in his 
hand and lost three tricks. If you once begin 



32 Foster's American leads 

"Information" you must stand by it, even if 
you lose every game you play. If you " show 
Rye" one hand, and show command another, 
you will drive your partner mad. 

If a game depends for its success upon the 
accuracy of the information given and received 
by the partners, one of the chief objects of the 
adversaries must be to make that information as 
unreliable and misleading as possible. With 
this end in view many of the best players have 
adopted a systematic course of false-card play 
second and fourth hand. This feature was es- 
pecially noticeable in the play of the Minne- 
apolis team, which won the Forrest Trophy at 
the Third Whist Congress in Chicago. When 
they had three or four small cards of the adverse 
suit they retained the smallest, rendering it im- 
possible for the leader and his partner to draw 
any reliable inferences. There is nothing so 
effective at Whist as a false card, well played. ■• 

The student who is interested in the policy 
of deception is referred to " Foster's Whist 
Strategy." 



AND HOW TO LEARN THEM. 33 

ijst conclusion. 



I trust that it is quite unnecessary for me to 
say that I do not approve of Information and 
American Leads as a game. Information is not 
Whist, and American Leads are simply a mass 
of contradictions. They are not American at all, 
but English. Those who advocate them call 
their rules "maxims"; but a maxim is "a prin- 
ciple generally received or admitted as true," 
which is very far from the case with these leads. 
They are called "modern," but the principle of 
them was first suggested 90 years ago. They are 
called ' ' scientific ' ' ; but they will not stand the 
most superficial comparative analysis. They are 
said to give "fuller and clearer information 
than the old leads ' ' ; but it has been conclusively 
shown that they do not give as much. They are 
said to be "the most perfect, harmonious, and 
complete system of play ever invented;" but 
every one of their advocates has some improve- 
ment to suggest, especially in the Queen leads. 
Their father and godfather cannot agree as to 
whether the second ' ' maxim ' ' is unutterably good 
or hopelessly bad. Cavendish, in the appendix 
to the twentieth edition, seems to think it gives 
too much information to the adversaries, especi- 
ally in enabling them to finesse successfully. This 
does not quite agree with his statement that : 



34 foster' a American leads. 

" It seems unlikely that a player will be at a dis- 
advantage, in the long run, because he imparts too 
much information." — " Whist Developments," 
fourth edition, p. 2. These leads are said to have 
"been adopted by all the best players"; but 
they have lost every match at duplicate whist in 
which they have been explicitly opposed to the 
old leads. The team that won the championship 
for fours in 1892 and for pairs in 1893, absolutely 
refuses to have anything to do with them. Their 
high priest praises them simply because they are 
conventions which give " fuller and clearer infor- 
mation." This does not agree with his statement 
that "no such conventions should be allowed in 
Whist," and that: "Conventions for the pur- 
pose of giving information only, are decidedly 
objectionable."— Brooklyn Eagle, Nov. 20, 1893. 
I do not for a moment believe that a system so 
full of absurd contradictions would receive so 
much attention in America were it not for its 
name. But so strongly rooted in the American 
heart are the virtues of patriotism and respect 
for authority, that I believe if Cavendish were to 
suggest that the trump suit should have no 
especial value after the sixth trick, and should 
call it "United States Whist," it would soon 
supersede all other forms of the game, even its 
latest and worst, "Information with American 
Leads." 



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